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The Decision to Delay Social Security Benefits: Theory and Evidence

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  • John B. Shoven
  • Sita Nataraj Slavov

Abstract

Social Security benefits may be commenced at any time between age 62 and age 70. As individuals who claim later can, on average, expect to receive benefits for a shorter period, an actuarial adjustment is made to the monthly benefit amount to reflect the age at which benefits are claimed. We investigate the actuarial fairness of this adjustment. Our simulations suggest that delaying is actuarially advantageous for a large subset of people, particularly for real interest rates of 3.5 percent or below. The gains from delaying are greater at lower interest rates, for married couples relative to singles, for single women relative to single men, and for two-earner couples relative to one-earner couples. In a two-earner couple, the gains from deferring the primary earner's benefit are greater than the gains from deferring the secondary earner's benefit. We then use panel data from the Health and Retirement Study to investigate whether individuals' actual claiming behavior appears to be influenced by the degree of actuarial advantage to delaying. We find no evidence of a consistent relationship between claiming behavior and factors that influence the actuarial advantage of delay, including gender and marital status, interest rates, subjective discount rates, or subjective assessments of life expectancy.

Suggested Citation

  • John B. Shoven & Sita Nataraj Slavov, 2012. "The Decision to Delay Social Security Benefits: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 17866, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17866
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2019. "How will persistent low expected returns shape household economic behavior?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 612-622, October.
    2. Streeter, Jialu L., 2020. "Gender differences in widowhood in the short-run and long-run: Financial, emotional, and mental wellbeing," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    3. Andreas Hubener & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2016. "How Family Status and Social Security Claiming Options Shape Optimal Life Cycle Portfolios," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(4), pages 937-978.
    4. Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell & Ralph Rogalla & Tatjana Schimetschek, 2021. "Optimal social security claiming behavior under lump sum incentives: Theory and evidence," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(1), pages 5-27, March.
    5. Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2021. "Older peoples' willingness to delay social security claiming," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 410-425, July.
    6. Gustman, Alan L. & Steinmeier, Thomas L. & Tabatabai, Nahid, 2019. "The Affordable Care Act as retiree health insurance: implications for retirement and Social Security claiming," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 415-449, July.
    7. Vanya Horneff & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2019. "How Would 401(k) ‘Rothification’ Alter Saving, Retirement Security, and Inequality?," Working Papers wp398, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    8. Alan Gustman & Thomas Steinmeier & Nahid Tabatabai, 2014. "Distributional Effects of Means Testing Social Security: An Exploratory Analysis," Working Papers wp306, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    9. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas L. Steinmeier, 2012. "Behavioral Effects of Social Security Policies on Benefit Claiming, Retirement and Saving," Working Papers wp263, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    10. David Knapp & Beth Asch & Jim Hosek & Michael G. Mattock, 2016. "The Retirement and Social Security Benefit Claiming of U.S. Military Retirees," Working Papers wp336, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    11. Gustman, Alan L. & Steinmeier, Thomas L., 2015. "Effects of social security policies on benefit claiming, retirement and saving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 51-62.
    12. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2017. "How persistent low expected returns alter optimal life cycle saving, investment, and retirement behavior," SAFE Working Paper Series 190, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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